PMA Professor Bruce Levitt's film, Before Time / After Time, has been selected to screen at the Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s Arts In Action Festival in New York City’s Theater Row on Sunday, September 10th at 2 p.m.
A 45-min film that narrates the stages leading to imprisonment and the struggle of returning to normalcy afterwards, the work was made in collaboration with the Arts, Justice and Safety Coalition alongside fellow project leaders Isaac Scott and Shaun Leonardo.
The work was funded by the Art for Justice Fund and sponsored by the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors with the vision of advocating alternatives to incarceration policy and claiming justice for those on the receiving end of incursions in the felony court space.
Before Time / After Time transports the audience to an exploration of the lives of nine returned citizens, capturing moments of their lives prior to and following incarceration. The juxtaposition of such moments is depicted as the consequence of imprisonment as a turning point in their lives, which are portrayed from childhood to the present.
Furthermore, the film conveys the remorse and desire for moral redemption experienced by those who have committed wrongdoings. It paints a raw story of both the internal and external crises of returning to home and society, told from an angle from which voices were rarely heard. For this reason, the work is a poignant yet powerful emblem of the strength, compassion, and benevolence of its collaborators. It is evidence that art truly unites all, forming communities in which shared experiences of alienation, struggle, and self-discovery intertwine to craft a novel genre of the human story.
The festival is free and open only to a registered audience. Registration can be completed here.
Erin Yoon ’26 is a communications assistant in the Department of Performing and Media Arts.
